Scott Levy

Ideas collected.

PowerPoint LevelUp

If your presentations suck, your audience is likely daydreaming.   Stop hitting people over the head with "facts" and start telling a compelling story - here is Cliff Atkinson's take. 
Combine this with Jungian archetypes (a la the "brand" gurus) and Cialdani's research collections around influence, and finally "Get Your Point Across in the 30 Seconds or Less" and see if your success doesn't rise dramatically....

Here is a Cliff Atkinson overview I found (wish I could find the one I saw years ago):

Law of the instrument

I do keep seeing the idea of Maslow's hammer all around - it's good to remind myself of it to stay honest and keep learning:

"It is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_the_instrument

Keep learning, keep improving - there are no "golden hammers" that work to solve every problem.


This thought brought to you by Skorks.com

http://www.skorks.com/2010/03/you-dont-need-math-skills-to-be-a-good-develope...

That in turn courtesy of Will Bunker: http://makematters.blogspot.com

Can you balance structure and creativity to innovate? Check this video and today's assignment.

Can you balance structure and creativity to innovate? My friend Brannen can -  and sound brilliant all the while: 

In improvisational music, people often don't realize the musicians are required to have a deep understanding of structures: chord progressions, song forms, their instruments, and the way elements can be juxtaposed.   Again and again, the most creative musicians are the most studied.   Count Basie, like the Beatles, came up playing for hours on end.  Jimmy Hendrix toured with a blues band before he was a "front man".   Mozart:  his dad was a teacher and worked young Wolfie's behind off.

While some might argue that Brannen was born funky, I can tell you this is a guy who has been at this for quite a while and who thinks about the music.  He can articulate subleties of what he does, how he concieves of music, and working with others, and he listens with a keen ear.  No offense Brannen you may also have been born funky, I am just thinking back to a conversation we had years ago...

In any case, here is todays assignment: Devote 15 minutes to the following

- Identify three simple steps could you take today to deepen your understanding of some aspect of your business.  
- Spend 10 minutes on it (read an article, browse the Web, study a company you admire)
- Brainstorm 5 actions you could take to improve your business based on what you've just learned.  Don't analyze them, just brainstorm

Keep the results in a notebook or file.  Beware, if you do this every day you are likely to come up with great ideas.

PS- check out more of Brannen and Blaze at youtube.com/btempdrum